Students with Exceptional needs Essay Example for Free

Students with Exceptional needs Essay I observed a student with delayed developmental milestones in One Tree School. The student has very slow catching up capacity and according to her teacher she is left behind most of the time by the class. Her teacher ensures that before presenting lectures in class, he make a simplified copy of lecture notes which is given to the student. The teacher assures me that the teaching standards offered to the class are understandable to the student with delayed developmental milestone. In addition the student is given tape recorded material to assist her in re-evaluating the lectures after classes. The class environment is very favourable for this student because there are other three students with exceptional needs in the same class room. The school administration has established policies which ensure that all students with exceptional needs are served well and accorded quality standardized education. Other students in the classroom, who have no exceptional needs have been advised on how to handle, cope with, and assist this student to increase her understanding abilities. I asked to read the child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) and her teacher was very cooperative. The IEP of this student has been well designed based on her disability and knowledge capacity. It has included all the knowledge and skills which the students need in order to progress to the next grade. The IEP of this student has specifically included her educational program which is English language arts program. The IEP analyzes her current performance in class based on the examination and test results given by teachers, parents and other school staff. According to the individual education plan her disability has not affected her class work much because she is a bright student who is willing to learn. The IEP shows the annual goals and objectives which she is required to accomplish in terms of academic or behavioral needs. She has made measuring progress in her previous grades according to the achieved objectives. All special education services are included in the IEP and provided to the child. However, she is not allowed to participate in academic contests which involve arithmetic and geometry studies. She picks up very slowly both academically and socially. She has difficulty catching up with teachers in class especially when the presentation is very fast. She has a problem in finishing her class work assignments on time due to a slow speed of understanding. The student experiences difficulty in socializing and making friends with classmates and schoolmates. She spends most time in isolation and has developed low self esteem and lack of confidence. Teachers and the girl’s parents have collaborated to initiate measures which ensure the student’s needs are met. The girl is given extra tutoring after school and assessed using individual tests to update her academic level. Support groups are put up in place in the school to assist her in developing social and interpersonal skills. I would change the instructional delivery system by ensuring that the child is allowed to participate in challenging events such as geometry contests and taking arithmetic assignments to improve her overall understanding level. This will increase her self esteem and level of confidence. It will allow her to adapt in any kind of environment, despite her delayed developmental milestones. The student should be widely consulted and assessed to create instructions that will be effective in providing all required knowledge and skills. Grade Four English-language Arts Content Standards. Reading 1. 0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development Students understand the basic features of reading. They select letter patterns and know how to translate them into spoken language by using phonics, syllabication, and word parts. They apply this knowledge to achieve fluent oral and silent reading. Word Recognition 1. 1 Read narrative and expository text aloud with grade-appropriate fluency and accuracy and with appropriate pacing, intonation, and expression. Vocabulary and Concept Development 1. 2 Apply knowledge of word origins, derivations, synonyms, antonyms, and idioms to determine the meaning of words and phrases. 1. 3 Use knowledge of root words to determine the meaning of unknown words within a passage. 1. 4 Know common roots and affixes derived from Greek and Latin and use this knowledge to analyze the meaning of complex words (e. g. , international). 1. 5 Use a thesaurus to determine related words and concepts. 1. 6 Distinguish and interpret words with multiple meanings.

Analysis of the Harlem Renaissance

Analysis of the Harlem Renaissance The movement raised significant issues affecting the lives of African Americans through a variety of literature, art, music, drama, painting, sculpture, movies, and protests. The outburst of creativity among black writers of this period was the productof the many moods and circumstances of the time. Therefore, the Harlem Renaissance was more than a literary movement; it was anexciting cultural expression of racial experience which extendedinto every area of black life. The significance of this movement to African American literary art lies in the efforts of its writers to praise the legacy of African Americans and to use their unique culture as a means toward re-defining African American literary expression Harlem Renaissance was the era when African-Americans for the first time had a real reason to experience pride and rejoice in their identity. In Harlem they found something that was uniquely their own. African-American literature, art, music, and beliefs were respected, appreciated and recognized on a national level. African-Americans were first time regarded as intellectuals before Harlem renaissance Afro Americans were generally considered a stereotype from the outside. This stereotype was an individual servile, unqualified, unskillful and with little potential other than as a laborer. After many years of suffering through imprisonment and domination by the White man, African Americans began to come together to express their strong beliefs of racial pride and self-identity. This movement increased self confidence of Afro Americans and made them feel proud and happy. For the first time, all publishers and critics took Afro American literature seriously and Africans Americans started to work with white people. The Harlem Renaissance was a turning point in African American literature; it was no longer read mainly by black people, but started to be absorbed into the whole American culture. Due to all reasons mentioned above Harlem Renaissance stands as one of the most celebrated movements in African-American culture and American history. It is known as the golden period of African American art and literature. The purpose of the Harlem Renaissance was for African Americans to express their need for racial equality. Civil Rights activists such as W.E.B. Du Bois, who helped to establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), decided that instead of using direct political means to achieve their goals of racial equality, that they would employ artists and writers of their culture to achieve their goals. During the Harlem renaissance there was an outburst of artistic creation in all fields including visual arts, literature and poetry, music and dance that both represented and gave voice to the afro American thoughts. Even Newspapers and magazines such as The Messenger, Crisis, and Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, were also highly important because they exposed the evils of discrimination. African Americans looked to these pieces of literature for leadership and direction. The main goal of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance was to show the Negro as a talented individual, worthy of the same respect given to white Americans. Writers such as Claude McKay and Langston Hughes not only changed the way Negros have been portrayed in theaters throughout history but also blazed the path for the future generations to follow. The Harlem Renaissance was a transitional time when poetry changed a state of African-Americans to outstanding heights. It was one of the most vital expressive vehicles used for the promotion and celebration of African American history, culture and political awareness. The presence of many lower and middle-class blacks in theNorthern ghettoes who could buy books and magazines and go totheaters and clubs provided the financial backing to support thecreative blacks who contributed to the Harlem Renaissance. One of the chief poets who emerged from the period was Langston Hughes. He was born in 1920 in Joplin, Missouri and spent most his youth in the American Midwest. He first came to New York in 1921 to attend Columbia University. A year later he shipped out as a salesman and cook’s helper on a tramp steamer to Africa and Europe. He lived and worked in Paris and Italy and then returned to the United States, where he took a job as a busboy in a Washington DC, hotel. There in 1925, he was discovered by the poet Vachel Lindsay, who praised Hughes’s poems and advised him to devote himself to literature. His first books, The Weary Blues (1926) and Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927) won poetry prizes and brought him wide acclaim. Unlike many of his peers who were turning inward for poetic expression. Hughes explored the expressive validity of black vernacular in urban and rural black lifestyle. His dynamic and insightful representation of African-Americans touches the souls of many. His poetry paints a picture of the complications faced by African-Americans with a mixture of music, culture, happiness and environmental struggles. Langston Hughes lived ina society that was completely dominated by White men. Heremembers the company of his grandmother, â€Å"She†¦held mein her lap and told†¦stories about people who wanted to makethe Negroes free†¦.† (Emanuel19). Thus, not only social atmospherebut his family experiences have also made him touse poetry as a weapon by which he could give an effectiveexpression to cultural and ethnic qualities of his black race inorder to shape a society. â€Å"He has asserted his voice of selfacceptance†(Berry 87). For the first time, there has been aman on the literary scene to glorify his â€Å"Blackness† and not tofeel ashamed of his being Black. Hughes is most famous for his poetry but he contributed to numerous forms of literature and nonfiction throughout his long career.His first novelNot Without Laughter appeared in 1930. Hughes had a wide range of talent. He was a successful humorist and a historian of the lives of blacks. He wrote proudly and sanguinely about the African American conditions. His most famous fictional character is Jesse B. Semple, nicknamed Simple, who uses humor to protest and satirize the existing injustices. Apart from poems and novels he also wrote short stories, children’s books, song lyrics and operas. He translated foreign writers and wrote numerous plays, three of which were produced on Broadway. Langston Hughes in his essay The Negro Artist and The Racial Mountain (1926), expressed the new rebellious mood of the Renaissance writers: Let the blare of Negro jazz bands and the bellowing voice of Bessie Smith singing Blues penetrate the closed ears of the colored near-intellectuals until they listen and perhaps understand. Let Paul Robeson singing Water Boy, and Rudolph Fisher writing about the streets of Harlem, and Jean Toomer holding the heart of Georgia in his hands, and Aaron Douglas drawing strange black fantasies cause the smug Negro middle class to turn from their white, respectable, ordinary books and papers to catch a glimmer of his own beauty.(Ervin 48) Much of his best writing was journalistic. In 1937 he served as a foreign correspondent covering the Spanish Civil war for the Baltimore,Afro American news –paper. His most popular works were news paper sketches written for the Chicago Defender in the 1940s .The sketches recounted the adventures opinions of an innocent downtrodden Negro, â€Å"Simple,† whose penetrating views of blacks and whites provided Hughes with the means for making broad satirical and critical commentary on society and government. Hughes was a worldly cosmopolite who lived an almost nomadic life. He traveled to Mexico, Cuba, and the Caribbean, to Africa, Western Europe, The SovietUnion, China and Japan. But he was most influenced by his American experience, by his black heritage, and by the vivid life of New York’s city and Harlem, with its blues and jazz music that so influenced the structure and rhythm of such poems as â€Å"The Weary Blues†. He was the first black American to support himself as a professional writer. In all, he produced more than sixty books. He was also one of the first American writers to receive extended and serious critical attention for realistic portrayals of black Americans. Through his poetry, fiction, and essays, he became one of the dominant voices speaking out for the significance of black culture at the core of life in the twentieth –century America. In the Twenty-first century his work still proclaims, â€Å"I, too, am America.† He created a new literary art form called jazz poetry.He was perhaps the most original of African American poets in the breadth and variety of his work and assuredly the most representative of African American writers. He believes in the ideals of liberty,equality and universal brotherhood. His creative oeuvrereflects that how he constantly struggled for the dignity andequal rights of African Americans. Claude McKay, from Jamaica, was another most influencing poet of the Harlem Renaissance. He was born on September 15, 1890 in, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica, and West Indies. Youngest of eleven children he was sent to live with his oldest brother at an early age so that he could be given the best education. McKay was an avid reader who began to write poetry at the age of ten. Much of his writings are a reflection of that shock he felt about American racism. With the publication of two volumes of poetry, Spring in New Hampshire (1920) and Harlem Shadows (1922), McKay emerged as the most militant voice of the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry gained a lasting admiration among African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance and addressed social and political concerns. McKay wrote three novels: Home to Harlem (1928), a best-seller which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo (1929), and Banana Bottom (1933). He also authored a collection of short stories, Gingertown (1932), and two autobiographical books, A Long Way from Home (1937) and Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940). His book of poetry, Harlem Shadows (1922) was among the first books published during the Harlem Renaissance. His book of collected poems, Selected Poems (1953), was published posthumously. Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen identified McKay as a chief inspiring force, even though he did not put pen to paper for modern verse. His poem â€Å"If We Must Die earned excellent remarks for him from fellow writers such as James Weldon Johnson and Walter White. Lines from his poem, If We Must Die, indicate the spirit of protest: If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

Ethical Issues Qualitative Research On Internet Communities Media Essay

Ethical Issues Qualitative Research On Internet Communities Media Essay Ethics are always considered in conducting social research. Ethic is a set of principles, moral duties and obligations that guides the conduct of people (American Correctional Health Services Association, 2010). For social research, ethical is to conform to the standards of conduct of a given profession or group (Babbie 2007, p62). Generally, there are four ethical principles should be concerned in conducting social research including no harm to participants, informed consent, voluntary participation, and privacy and confidential. Here, Qualitative research into internet communities has created new ethical issue of informed consent. Informed consent means that subjects must base their voluntary participation in research projects on a full understanding of the possible risks involved, (Babbie, p64). In fact, the research on internet communities has led to a violation of this principle. Internet communities such as discussion boards, mailing lists, chat rooms, or newsgroups, provide rich information about peoples opinion or daily experiences. It is useful for researchers to obtain relevant data, such as some patient self support communities sharing their personal experiences. Researchers can access to those communities for acquiring information and observation. However, it brings a problem that some internet communities members do not want to be the research subjects and being monitored. Researchers might be intruders and damage the communities. Here, members are not the voluntary participants. Then, informed co nsent here may not work. Besides, there is also harm to research subjects on the internet communities when researchers are interested in insight research. For example, some of the members on Breast Cancer Mailing List claim that they do not want to be observed. When researchers are gaining insight personal experience about the breast cancer patients, it can recall their negative memories which lead distress to them. And the second main ethical issue is that there is a risk of disclosing to the privacy and confidentiality of internet communities member. Privacy and confidential is about the researcher can identify a given persons responses but promises not to do so publicly (Babbie 2007, p65). Since internet contains many of powerful search engines such as Google, it can search anything a user wants. For example, when the authors search for the Dejanews archive to find comments of newsgroup participants responding to researchers requests, it can show many of related messages. Another issue on privacy and confidentiality is that there could be various pitfalls for researchers. Particularly researchers may unintentionally violate the privacy of some members due to the blur spaces of internet. For example, even if researchers remove any personal information about research subjects, they may also breach the participants confidentiality due to the power of search engines. Thus, privacy and confidential on internet community is difficult to achieved. Words: 482 The authors distinguish three different types of research into internet communities. Summarise them in your own words. (400 words) Generally, the three types of research methods may include the passive analysis, active analysis, and identifying themselves as such and gathering information in the form of using internet. First, the first type is the passive analysis which the researchers would not actively participate in the online study. However, they would focus on the studies of information patterns on websites, interactions on discussion groups through observation. They may analysis those studies about helping mechanisms, and content of online self help groups for some patients like colorectal cancer, breast cancer, Alzheimers disease, and eating disorders. Second is the active analysis which is the researchers would participant in such internet communications. That means researchers try to be a participant to communicate with others. For instance, researchers would determine whether the responses to healthcare questions on the Usenet accurate or not. And the third type is that researchers would identify themselves as and gather information by using different forms of online methods. They may include online semi structured interview, online focus groups, or internet based surveys or use the internet to recruit participant for traditional research. Therefore, it is a more diverse way for researchers to use. Words: 213 Research into Internet communities blur the boundaries between public and private space. Describe the issues identified in the article. (400 words) In the article, it stated there is a difficulty to dichotomize the boundaries between public and private space appropriately during the process obtaining an informed consent from research subjects. In fact, research into internet communities is quite different to the traditional research for obtaining informed consent. Traditionally, informed consent is required when the research is occurred in a private context where individuals are expected there is no observation or reporting is taking place. If it is a public space, the research about natural observation is acceptable without obtaining consent from those subjects. And it does not require Research Ethics Board to review when the research is about observation, as it can be expected participants are seeking public visibility. Therefore, it has more clear boundaries between public and private space. However, research into internet communities may blur such boundaries as people participate in online discussion groups cannot be assumed to be seeking public visibility. And there are various ways of defining public or private space from researchers and internet communities users. Here, some issues are identified which relate to how to perceive the level of privacy in internet communities. Firstly, it noted that most of the subscribers are likely to see the group as a private space in cyberspace when a subscription or some form of registration is required to access a discussion group. Therefore, when there is a registration in that internet community, it is a private space. Secondly, it is pointed out the numbers of (real or assumed) users of a community determines how a public is. The public space is perceived to be a posting to mailing lists with 10 subscribers here is different 100 or 1000 subscribers in mailing lists. However, the problem now is that it is impossible to determine the actual or assumed users when sending messages as some messages may store in web accessible archives. Therefore, using the number of determining the space is public or not may cause the blur of boundaries. Finally, the perception of privacy sometimes is depended on an individual groups norms and codes, target audience, and aim may lay down in the frequently asked questions or information files of internet communities. In this way, it is firstly not easy for researcher to distinguish whether it is a private or public space. More importantly, researchers cannot access to those individual groups as they have set some norms and policies which not allow them to observe those subjects even researchers interested in. For example, a self support group of sexual abuse survivors has a group policy not allow those who were not sexual abuse survivors participating in. On the whole, research into internet communities blurs the boundaries between public and private space where it is difficult to determine these two spaces appropriately. The article mainly identified some issues about the level of privacy or the types into internet communities are various. Words: 480 Using an example of an internet community familiar to you, how might informed consent be obtained to study that community and discuss any problems in the methods you suggest? (800 words) Internet communities provide conveniences and rich information for qualitative research. However, how informed consent might be obtained is a problem that researchers encounter. Here, an example of internet community will be used to show the method of obtaining informed consent. And also discuss the problem may rise. One of the internet communities I familiar to is the discussion board from Facebook. It can connect many of different self support groups. Particularly, an example of support group that I know is the SoulTalk which has established within Facebook. SoulTalk is a non-profit organization with website and discussion board in Facebook. It provides professional, personalized care, support and resources for women share with emotional or relationship crisis. In the discussion board, it is a private group which only opens for its members to share emotional and experiences. Moreover, there are professional counselors helping members to solve problems. There are about 20 members within this discussion board, which they share their experiences about emotional problems. For those who are not the members can only view the basic information and no sharing is allowed. For someone who wants to access this discussion board, they can request for join it but should be confirmed by the group administrator. At first, we should register to be a member of Facebook. And then we can be the member of that community. While the researchers want to study this community, they may firstly need to register to Facebook and then wait for the confirmation of this community. Since this discussion board is a private group, it can be expected that all the information and data from the members are confidential, and they are not seeking public visibility. Therefore, informed consent is required to study this online community. First, as suggested by McCleary (2007), getting permission to enter the group from the administrators is necessary when studying that community. Since they know that community better than researchers, therefore, it should be a better way to understand the group norms or standards from that community, and what would be the best way to obtain consent from members. To obtain the permission from the group organizer, the researchers should explain their purposive of the research, and what form of the members data would be analyzed, and how they ensure that there will be no harm to members. Then, when there is a need to analyze the research result by quoting or using the postings of members, it is important to send emails and ask retrospectively each member of informed consent. Informed consent should note the content of consent form should explain the purpose of the research, and provide a description of any reasonably risks or discomforts to the subjects (Frankel and Siang 1999). Also, it should state the extent of members confidentiality of records would be used and maintained. In this way, members may know more about the research and the possible risks to them, thus, it can give members the considerations whether to withdraw or not. For example, to explain the obtained of their data would only be used in report with anonymity. If members are still refused to participate in, there are also alternatives to them withdraw from the analysis of research. Therefore, the ethical principle of obtaining informed consent can be maintained. Moreover, there will be less intrusiv e in this way and avoid the artificial of the stories made by participants. Indeed, the methods bring some problems. First, the method of asking each member of consent is quite time consuming and unmanageable. As said by Eysenbach and Till (2001), the email address may not be valid and some of them would respond to you. Thus, it may cause some troubles where researchers do not know the email is valid or not. And it is quite difficult for researchers to receive all the consent forms and analyze the result. It generally would be a problem of obtaining informed consent. Also, there would be also a problem that it is possible the administrator does not allow to access the discussion group where the researchers are interested in studying that issue. Therefore, it brings disadvantage to researchers. Besides, even if the administrator allows researchers to enter the group, it does not mean that all of other members agree their information is disclosed. Although researchers may try to conform to the ethical principles to obtain members consent, some of the members indeed do not expect and want to be research subjects. They may perceive researchers as intruders as a result of damaging that community. For example, after the members knowing there are researcher lurking on the discussion board, they may decide to leave the community. Therefore, it is a possible problem that this method of informed consent brings out. On the whole, researcher can identify whether the discussion board as a private space from the example because it has stated that the board would open to non-members. So, it is clear for researchers to follow the ethical principles. However, it still brings problems that cannot be solved during the process of obtaining informed consent which the above have stated. More importantly, the deeper problem should be considered is there is no a consistent guideline to define the boundaries between public or private spaces. Therefore, it brings difficulty to researchers when conducting online research particularly the different level of measuring private spaces. Words: 885 Total words: 2060

Spirits and Abraham Lincoln: Letters to President Lincoln Concerning S

In the late nineteenth century, American spiritualists maintained that Abraham Lincoln had been a spiritualist too. Whenever they drew up lists of prominent believers, Lincoln was foremost among the reformers, judges, governors, senators, and scientists whose stature lent credence to their movement. In this paper, I look at letters written to President Lincoln by spiritualists or about spiritualism, but it is not my aim to determine whether or not Lincoln was a spiritualist. Instead, I use these letters to reflect on spiritualism as a cultural phenomena. It captured the imaginations of many Americans in the years leading up to the Civil War, drawing them to sà ©ance rooms, to mediums, or to their family parlors to commune with the dead. The letters to Lincoln reveal how spiritualism evolved from older cultural traditions and what it came to mean for spiritualists. Letters to Abraham Lincoln are available on the World Wide Web, part of the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. The Lincoln Papers include a large number of incoming letters from a variety of correspondents: friends, political figures, and regular people. Most of the letters have been transcribed and annotated by scholars at the Lincoln Study Center . Very few letters—only ten—deal with spiritualism at all. The authors, however, represent the full spectrum of letter writers, from Lincoln ’s closest friend, to a well-known New York judge, to ordinary people—that is, ordinary people who received messages from spirits. Five of these ten letters came from avowed spiritualists, four men and one woman.[1] One man denied being a spiritualist, and another sent a tongue-in-cheek introduction to two mediums, leaving his sentiment... ...ttp://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html, accessed [30 December 2014]. [16] The relationship is described in an annotation. Joshua F. Speed to Abraham Lincoln, February 13, 1849. Transcribed and annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center , Knox College , Galesburg , Illinois . Available at Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division ( Washington , D.C. : American Memory Project, [2000-01]), http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html, accessed [30 December 2014]. [17] Joshua F. Speed to Abraham Lincoln, October 26, 1863. Transcribed and annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center , Knox College , Galesburg , Illinois . Available at Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division ( Washington , D.C. : American Memory Project, [2000-01]), http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html, accessed [30 December 2014].

Domestic Violence and Abuse in Australia :: Violence Against Women Essays

Domestic violence is a significant social issue that has a major impact upon the health of women in society. Discuss this statement and identify the factors that may contribute to domestic violence. Domestic violence is known by many names including spouse abuse, domestic abuse, domestic assault, battering, partner abuse, marital strife, marital dispute, wife beating, marital discord, woman abuse, dysfunctional relationship, intimate fighting, male beating and so on. McCue (1995) maintains that it is commonly accepted by legal professionals as "the emotional, physical, psychological, or sexual abuse perpetrated against a person by that person's spouse, former spouse, partner, former partner or by the other parent of a minor child" (although several other forms of domestic violence have become increasingly apparent in today's society). Whatever name is used to refer to it, however, domestic violence is a very grave and difficult problem faced by Australian society. Although domestic violence can include the abuse of parents, children, siblings and other relatives, it predominantly involves violence against sexual partners with women being the most common victims and men being the 'aggressors' (Family Violence Professional Education Taskforce 1991). It is inadequate to view domestic violence as an aspect of the normal interpersonal conflict which takes place in most families. According to McCue (1995), many families experience conflict, but not all male members of families inevitably resort to violence. It is not the fact of family disputes or marital conflict that generate or characterize violence in the home. Violence occurs when one person assumes the right to dominate over the other and decides to use violence or abuse as a means of ensuring that domination (Family Violence Professional Education Taskforce 1991). Although all forms of domestic violence are pressing issues of equal importance, this essay is more specifically directed at spouse abuse and aims to delve deeper into the issue of domestic violence by examining its causes with respect to the socioeconomic status of the particular family and its effects upon women in Australian society. The FACS (Family and Community Services) booklet (1995), defines domestic violence as follows: 'when a woman suffers persistent physical, verbal, economic or social abuse from her partner with the result that she suffers a sustained emotional and, or psychological effect.' Domestic violence is the most common form of assault in Australia today. However, it remains a hidden problem because it occurs within the privacy of the home and those involved are usually reluctant to speak out (Healey 1993).

Going Against Nature with T.C. Boyle

Jessica Arroyo English 116 11 April 2012 Life is hard. There are two things we need to succeed in life. We need to understand that nature is a key player in life, and that it has a greater power over us than we do it. We cannot control nature, nor can we impact what it has in store for us. If nature, such as the weather, decides there’s going to be a storm this weekend, well the best we can do is prepare for it. If nature creates us in one mode, who are we to go against it and try to change our species? If nature decides it’s going to slam a commit into the earth, we are helpless in the matter.Going against nature, or even questioning its methods, has its consequences and the characters of the short stories written by T. C. Boyle seem to know this all too well. Nature is a greater power who demands great respect. It is not a choice in matter, but rather a forced way of life that we have no means to alter, which Boyle convincingly conveys through his stories. In the stor y â€Å"The Swift Passage of Animals†, T. C. Boyle takes us on a â€Å"big adventure† (91) in which a new relationship is intended to flourish by a romantic weekend getaway.The nature of the male, Zach, is to impress the young recently divorced woman, Ontario. Though they are already dating, he is still courting her in hopes to further impress her by taking her to â€Å"hike the trails and cross-country ski†¦ and then sit at the bar at the lodge till it was time to go to bed†(84), by sharing the experiences with the greatest thing they have in common, their love for nature. Of course, there is more in it for Zach than just enjoying the beauty nature has, he intends on fulfilling the â€Å"unspoken promise percolating beneath the simple monosyllable of her assent—going to bed† (84).Zach is using her love of nature to his fullest advantage. Nature is not something to be taken advantage of, as it is not something to be questioned or controlled. Z ach, being the dominate â€Å"risk-taker† (79) that he believes himself to be is about to get a whole new taste of what nature has to offer when take advantage of for personal gain. Though Zach claims that the main reason for their trip is to explore and enjoy their common interest of nature at the Big Timber Lodge it is just a cover for what he really has in mind, which is going to bed with Ontario. T. C.Boyle’s diction throughout the beginning of the story foreshadows this â€Å"unspoken† (84) intention of Zach by placing details such as â€Å"the soft sexy scratch of [her voice] shot from his eardrums right to his crotch† (80), and the reference of her sweater with the â€Å"reindeer prancing across her breasts† (81), he foreshadows the consequences of these provoking thoughts by directly following them with the dangers of the â€Å"sleet† â€Å"dark† (80) road they were on. In showing his dominance and risk taking skills, Zach cho oses not to prepare in case they get caught in a storm on the way to the Lodge.He also presses nature even further by choosing to take the back road even though â€Å"there was a winter storm watch out of the Southern Sierras†¦and he knew that [it] would be closed as soon as the first snow hit† (74). All he could think about was getting there as fast as he could. â€Å"He was always in a hurry. Especially tonight. Especially with her† (74). Zach experiences his â€Å"first prick of worry† (81) when he spots a sign that said â€Å"Cars required with Chains† (81). Perversely† (95) nature enhances his worries by letting the snow paint the road with such intensity it was â€Å"as if some cosmic hand had swept on ahead with a two-lane paintbrush† (81). Despite the skidding of the tires and the snow â€Å"coming down as if it wasn’t going to stop till May† (88), Ontario maintains full confidence in Zach. â€Å"She wasn’t staring out the windshield into the white fury of the headlights, but watching him as if they were cruising down the Coast Highway under a ripe delicate sun† (83).But even with the confidence of his potential mate, his risk taking skills, and attitude nature still manages to turn things around on him when the car skids into a boulder and lands itself in â€Å"a glistening white ditch that undulated gracefully away from the hidden surface of the road† (85). Zach is now completely alone in the nature with Ontario, â€Å"which was where he really and truly wanted to be† (85). However, it is now that all of his unpreparedness becomes apparent. â€Å"He didn’t have a shovel in the truck—no shovel, and no chains† (86).No â€Å"knife† or â€Å"hatchet†, or â€Å"anything to cut with† (87). Nothing of any use to assist them in getting the tires up and out of the ditch. All of their feeble attempts merely gave â€Å"the rear whee ls a moment’s purchase† which just resulted in â€Å"[shoving] the front end in deeper† (88). Nature successfully pulls this egotistical, risk taking, prideful, dominant male down â€Å"to feel less a risk taker and more a fool, callow, rash, without foresight of calculation, the sort of blighted ndividual whose genetic infirmities get swallowed up in the food chain before he can reproduce and pass them on to vitiate the species† (86). As nature pulls Zach further and further down, deepening his misery by torrential snow and all the worries that come with leaving your car out in the middle of the wilderness (such as if â€Å"the yahoos come out and strip it† (92) ) in an attempt to hike to the Big Timber Lodge which was still a long â€Å"thirteen miles† (93) away, Ontario is â€Å"inordinately cheerful† (91).But â€Å"given how miserable [Zach] was† (91) because of the crash, he was able to pull the optimistic outlook of Ontari o down to his pessimistic level. By the end of their hike, Zach finds himself grouped into â€Å"the unlucky and unprepared† (95) people which nature tackles with full force. His trip was ruined, as well as his time with Ontario. When they finally reach the lodge, after being rescued from the cold by â€Å"the man in the goggles†(96) on a â€Å"snowmobile† (96), Ontario corrects Zachs request of a room to â€Å"two rooms† (98). In â€Å"Dogology† T. C.Boyle introduces us to Cynthia, or â€Å"C. f. , Captial C, lowercase f† (44) as she prefers to be called. She is a young woman who has finished grad school and attempting to â€Å"challenge† (35) the misconceptions people have about dogs. The world views dogs as â€Å"beneath them†¦ common, pedestrian, no more exotic than the housefly or the Norway rat† (35). C. f. was obsessed with changing the worlds view of dogs despite the fact that â€Å"the graduate committee rejected her thesis† (35). Humans have domesticated dogs. This results in two types of dogs: the wild and the domesticated.Cynthia challenges the methods of nature, by trying to change herself into a member of the pack. She committed herself to doing things as the pack would, â€Å"made a point of wearing the same things continuously for weeks on end†¦ in the expectation that her scent would invest them, and the scent of the pack too† (40). She â€Å"[hoped] to gain their confidence† (40) by smelling like them, running with them â€Å"reminding herself to always keep her head down and go quadrupedal whenever possible† (35) this was how she was going to â€Å"hear, smell and see as the dogs did† (35).Nature did not intend for Cynthia to take on the life of the dog. She was born human, and yet â€Å"what she was doing, or attempting to do, was nothing short of reordering her senses so that she could think like a dog and interpret the whole world— not just the human world—as dogs did† (35). Cynthia is exposed to the consequences of challenging nature by converting yourself to a different species of the world. Though married, Cynthia commits her days to accomplishing â€Å"the rhythm of dogdom† (40), ignoring the needs and the wants of her husband.She throws her â€Å"neighborhood into an uproar† (41) to the point where â€Å"they’re going to have her committed† (51). Her husband â€Å"locked her out† (50) of the house, leaving her to be with the dogs after a confrontation in which â€Å"he’d kicked her† (49) out of the frustration of her â€Å"research†(49) which he plainly saw as â€Å"bullshit† (49). â€Å"He wanted her back home, back in the den, and that was his right† (49), however Cynthia had other ambitions. Truly, she was accomplished being â€Å"left alone†(49) to enjoy â€Å"the unalloyed sweetness in life† where â€Å" the sun blessed† her body as she lay â€Å"streched out† among the pack.However, to the average citizen it may seem all a bit too costly to sacrifice the lives we live and relationships we have all for an understanding of something so â€Å"common† (35). In â€Å"Chicxulub† we are faced with the worst scenario a parent can imagine; a late night phone call, when we least expect it, stating â€Å"there has been an accident† (135) involving our own daughter, or in this story their daughter, â€Å"Madeline Biehn of 1337 Laurel Drive† (135).We are rushed through a flury of emotions while paralleling the catastrophic events of â€Å"Tunguska† (133) and â€Å"Chicxulub† (136), a â€Å"meteor† (133) and â€Å"asteroid† (136) that had impact with the Earth with such force that they were able to flatten â€Å"seven hundred square miles of Siberian forest† (133) and make â€Å"at least seventy-five percent of all know n species extinguished† (136). The most recent of the two, â€Å"Tunguska† (133) was â€Å"nearly a hundred years ago† (133).No one was expecting it, as no one expects a phone call in the middle of the night saying your child has been in a car accident. It seems nature has an awful need to demonstrate its authority every now and again, reminding us â€Å"that we, and all our works and worries and attachments, are so utterly inconsequential† (139). The chances of these catastrophic events are rare; they are about as likely as â€Å"dying in an auto accident in the next ten months†, however they are not unheard of. There is nothing we can do if one of these events were to take place in our lifetime.It doesn’t matter if you spend your life preparing for such a catastrophic event, such as the most recent dooms day preparers, or you buy your daughter â€Å"a Honda Civic, the safest thing on four wheels† (134). If nature has a plan it will e nact and follow through with its intentions. In fact the narrator clearly states his â€Å"point. You’d better get down on your knees and pray to your gods because each year this big spinning globe we ride intersects the orbits of some twenty million asteroids† (134). Sometimes, nature â€Å"perversely† (95) likes to hand out wake up calls.We find out after â€Å"the slow striptease of death† (142) as â€Å"the sheet draws back† (142) from the gurney where the supposed dead Madeline is to be, that their â€Å"daughter is not in the hospital† (143). Their daughter is exactly where she is supposed to be â€Å"asleep in her room† (143). It was a mistaken identity because Madeline â€Å"[loaned] her ID to her second-best friend, Kristi Cherwin† (143). The narrator of the story, â€Å"rushing still with the euphoria† realizes that this is not his daughter, and in fact not the â€Å"Chicxulub† of his lifetime.However he is left with a renewed perspective that â€Å"the rock is coming, the new Chicxulub, hurtling through the dark and the cold to remake our fate† (144). So it is through the stories that we have a renewed sense that nature is much more than a companion in life. Much more than just the flowers, and trees we pass by as we are â€Å"cruising down the Coast Highway under a ripe delicate sun† (83), much more powerful than our tactics of prevention such as our â€Å"Honda Civic† (134), or our will to undue to the simplification of our domesticated house pets.Nature has created the ways that we live in today. We are merely the players on its game board, â€Å"inconsequential† (139), insignificant. Nature does not bend to our will, but rather, we will bend to its will. Otherwise, we will be subjected to the wrath and fury of mother-nature itself.Works Cited Boyle, T. C. Tooth and Claw. New York: Viking, 2006. Blio. com. Blio. 2006. Web. 11 April. 2012.

Improving a company?

Improving a company's system helps aid in its success in today's market as well as in the future of the company's growth and stabilization. This new system that will enable the company to promptly accomplish these requirements without hesitation and will not interfere with the company's time management protocols or add extra unneeded expenses.An information system that more specifically is â€Å"a network architecture in which each computer or process on the network is either a client or a server Servers are powerful computers or processes dedicated to managing disk drives (file rivers), printers (print servers), or network traffic (network servers). Clients are PC's or workstations on which users run applications. Clients rely on servers for resources, such as files, devices, and even processing power. † (Whooped, 2014) The Trusted Computing Base (ETC) is the part of a system that is responsible for enforcing system-wide information security policies.The user can define user access to the trusted communication path, which allows secure communication between regular users and the ETC, by installing and using the ETC. The system administrator must determine how much trust can be given to a particular program. In the ring of trust model, the outer rings contain a lower level of security, and systems requiring higher levels of security are located inside the inner rings. To move from an outer ring into an inner ring, extra security mechanisms are encountered. † (Smith, 2013) the servers will be secure and have all the securities that Ordain would like and need.There will be little or no down time to create the new virtual servers and business will not be effected. Also the disaster recovery rate is much quicker in case of a crash. The information is backed up so in case of a crash the information can be derived quickly. The information gets to the end user much more quickly than having a physical server. Physical server machines get dirty and overload ed with old files and information that is no longer needed or wanted. All information passed through the organization will be encrypted to protect vital aspects of the company operations.The virtual machine running the share point will house the encryption piece for information traffic. Utilizing a virtual server in this aspect will allow end users to generate reports by department in real time with little or no help from an information technology professional. The use of firewalls and even a virtual firewall is also recommended to protect Radian's information. â€Å"A virtual firewall is a firewall device or service that provides network traffic filtering and monitoring for virtual machines.A virtual firewall is deployed, executed and operated from a virtual machine. Virtual firewall formats include: Stand-alone software Integrated SO kernel component. A virtual security provider's dedicated hardware platform A virtual firewall operates in a virtual area network (VAN) environment of connected virtual machines. A virtual firewall operates in two different modes: Bridge mode: Like a rotational firewall, this mode operates by diagnosing and monitoring all incoming and outgoing traffic bound for other virtual networks or machines.Hypocrites mode: In contrast, this mode is isolated from the actual network, resides in the core hypocrites kernel and monitors the virtual host machine's incoming and outgoing traffic. † (Technophobia, Virtual Firewall, 2014) When placing all of the business information on a server along with all of the employee information the company will want it to be secure and readily available to use. When using a virtual server there is not complete control of the physical access of the database. On the other hand the information is no longer on easy identifiable physical systems.There are multiple layers of virtual securities. The data safeguards requirements are the same as a physical server. Information that requires more safeguards is available. Information can be encrypted, role based control, and secure in many ways. Cyber-attacks are all very real threats and can be protected against also. A firewall can encrypt data at the file system that the virtual machine then uses a much managed login procedure for added protection of data against compromise. Logs are also created for looking jack on to see who, where, and when certain data was accessed.Different levels of securities will be used for different levels of data importance. Administration roles will have more securities on them than someone at the data entry level.